The efforts for establishing the Archaeological Museum at Kythera begin when the principal of the local high school, Spyros Stathis, in the 1930’s, and then the high school philologist and unpaid archivist, Themistocles Petrocheilos, in the 1940’s, bring together antiquities handed over by individuals. The first collection is housed in a room of the Archives Building at the Castle (Kastro) of Chora. Later, in 1959, Panagiotis Stathis allocates a small hall on the main street of Chora to assemble in it antiquities and heirlooms of various periods.

The systematic excavation research at Palaiopolis in the 1960’s brings to light a multitude of finds. The necessity of a place to keep and display them was eventually eliminated in the 1970’s through the donation of a building at the entrance of Chora made by the Kytherian Association. The building had housed in the 1920’s the School of Home Economics. The Archaeological Museum opens its doors in the autumn of 1981 and remains open to visitors for 25 years, up to January 2006, when, due to a strong earthquake that hits the island, it sustains damages and closes for the public.

In October 2013, the building is evacuated and repair works start along with works for the re-exhibition. The project for the “Restoration, Design and Re-exhibition of the Archaeological Museum of Kythera” is submitted for support to the “NSRF 2007-2013” Regional Operational Programme “Attica” on 8 August 2013 and it is completed on 31 December 2015. The study and the supervision of the works for the renovation of the building were undertaken by the Directorate of Studies and Conduction of Technical Works in Museums and Cultural Buildings and the project of the re- exhibition was completed by the Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica, Piraeus and the Islands of the Ministry of Culture.

On 8th of May 2016 the Museum welcomes its first visitors.